Thursday, June 26, 2014

Ariel writes about his experience as a cooperantes técnicos working on the Focapaci
project, and the challenges and learning that took place during the time he
participated on the ICS programme.

My name is Ariel
Vargas Celiz, I have worked for more than eleven months, almost a year. When I
originally found out I was going to work on a project with families in the city
of El Alto on
the implementation of urban gardens and supporting a children's center in
Portada Triangular I was filled with many emotions.

Sharing this
experience with my partner cooperantes técnicos, Edel, we saw a new horizon,
and began to coordinate activities with our team leader, getting to know the
partner, visiting the beneficiary community and the children in the day-care
centre.

Personally it
was a challenge because as a local cooperantes técnicos, my role was to mediate the
relationship between UK
volunteers and the community. This was the first time I had to interact with
young people from an English-speaking culture and with people in rural
communities, mostly women.

With the help
and experience of my Team Leader those fears were disappearing and becoming
experiences. The power of body language was my first tool because my English
was very basic, I loved my volunteers.

To breakdown the
language barrier I created a game which we played on our journey to work
because we had a lot of time going from the office to the city of El Alto. Our game was that
the volunteer had to say a word in Spanish and I had to translate it into
English, and just as I said a word in English, they had to tell me the meaning
in Spanish. This helped us a lot, especially me as I learned how to say all the
construction tools in English.

Focapaci;
working in the education and training of vulnerable populations in the city of El Alto, such as families
and women-headed households with limited resources.

Our role was to
support families who migrate from rural to urban areas, often single mothers
and/or widows in search of better opportunities.

Many of these
families did not complete high school, therefore making it even more difficult
to access decent employment. The project focuses on providing each family with
a greenhouse with the aim of food sustainability. All products developed in the
greenhouse are organic products for family consumption and any surplus is
intended for market, therefore supporting the family in the purchase of school
supplies or the purchase of other foodstuffs.

The challenge we
had was implementing within the family custom the need for the consumption of
organic products, since many of the families in the city of El Alto consume only carbohydrates such as
rice, potatoes, pasta, potato flour, tunta, etc. An interesting observation was
to see the number of obese children in the city, which is a sign of poor
nutrition

To achieve our
goal we developed nutrition workshops with families and children in childrens’
centres. This helped parents a lot in incorporating vegetables into their daily
diet.

In this learning
process strong friendships between the families and volunteers were formed.

On the one hand
I have seen how low-income families struggle to make a decent living and
healthy lifestyle with the implementation of their greenhouses, but through
hard work and effort, greatly motivated volunteers with the aim of development
and cooperation, they develop a very different perspective and gain
unforgettable experiences that contribute to their personal development.

This experience
was mutual. As volunteers learned about greenhouses and received training in Focapaci, they then replicated this within families,
while also learning of the everyday experiences of each family. Things such as
how to drive a nail through a greenhouse roof were things of great value to the
volunteers, and especially when it was lunch time when we all shared the
traditional Aphtapi, with families and volunteers sharing stories and customs
of both social contexts.

Being part of
this process has aided to help me develop my personal skills, with the
interaction between two different cultures united by a common goal. Learning a
new language like English and sharing customs and values ​​leads me to think
that we are all part of an ongoing learning experience, and as we teach we also
learn.

No matter the
language barriers and cultural differences when we all come together for a
common goal, whether it is building a greenhouse, supporting children in
schools, we help others in different ways and strengthen ourselves as people.

I want to thank
the ICS programme for this great opportunity, our team leaders, our UK volunteers and especially to those families who opened
their doors to this great experience.